About this Author

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.

About this Site

Moores Law defines the history of technology. It held that the number of circuits etched on a given piece of silicon could double every 18 months as far as its author, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, could see. Moores Law has spawned constant revolutions since then, not just in computing but in communications, in science, in a host of areas. Moores Law applies to radios, and to optical fiber, but there are some areas where it doesnt apply. In this blog well take a daily look at new implications of Moores Law in real time, as it rolls forward to create our future.

February 22, 2006

Google Images Ruled Illegal

U.S. District Judge Harold Matz of Los Angeles delivered this stunner in a suit originally filed by a porn firm, Perfect 10.

At issue is the Google Image Search caching and delivery of "thumbnail" images, which is the only way to tell someone what an image hit consists of. Perfect 10 not only sells its images to Web sites, but sells smaller "thumbnails" of those images to people with mobile phones, and those thumbnails, by themselves, represent product it wants money for.

Last March Agence France-Presse also filed suit against Google, claiming its delivery of thumbnails as well as portions of its news stories violated its copyright.

Decisions like this are beyond brain-dead. They essentially render the Internet impossible.

But more important they are counter-productive both to porn sellers like Perfect 10 and news agencies like Agence France-Presse. If an image or story can't be found, it doesn't exist. Since most users search for and find content, rather than going directly to it through an individual site, it is in the best interests of these people to actively cooperate with Google, rather than demand they be expunged from its database.

The best way for Google to get back at this point is to simply cooperate. Let them be unfound, and then not exist. But never pay for linking -- never, ever, ever.